1. Field of the Invention
The present invention(s) relate to one or more image forming systems including an image forming apparatus and an image processing apparatus, and methods of using same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with an increasing demand for power saving of devices such as an image forming apparatus and an image processing apparatus, there has been provided a technique for shifting a power state of the image forming apparatus to a power saving state according to a certain condition (e.g., the image forming apparatus has not been operated for a certain period of time) (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-223275 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-2500).
In this type of image forming apparatus, the state of the image forming apparatus shifts to a power saving state when a certain period of time has passed after ending printing processing executed by a printer unit and scanning processing executed by a scanner unit, or after ending communication with an external device.
In addition, an image processing apparatus for executing image processing in cooperation with the image forming apparatus may be connected to such an image forming apparatus. The image processing apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus periodically acquires various kinds of image forming apparatus information such as connection unit information, sheet feed stage information, sheet information, and toner information. Then, the image processing apparatus updates the image forming apparatus information stored in the image processing apparatus by itself by using the acquired image forming apparatus information. Further, the image processing apparatus notifies, and makes known, the acquired image forming apparatus information to a computer of a user who uses the image forming apparatus by using the acquired image forming apparatus information.
As described above, because the image forming apparatus and the image processing apparatus periodically communicate with each other, changes in the image forming apparatus information are reflected in the image processing apparatus within a certain period of time if the image forming apparatus information has been updated, and thus uniformity of the information across the entire image forming system can be ensured.
However, the state of the image processing apparatus shifts to a power saving state when the image processing apparatus is not in use. When the image processing apparatus is in the power saving state, the periodic communication between the image forming apparatus and the image processing apparatus is not executed. Therefore, in a case where the image forming apparatus information is changed while the image processing apparatus is in the power saving state, uniformity of the information across the entire image forming system immediately after the image processing apparatus has returned from the power saving state may not be maintained.
In this case, unchanged image forming apparatus information is notified, and made known, to the computer of the user who uses the image forming apparatus, so that the user may create a job based on the unchanged information. In such a case, malfunctions may occur in the image forming system, and thus an output acquired based on that job may be different from the output desired by the user, or the job that cannot be executed by the image forming apparatus may be created.